Executive Board approves Cooperative Program Task Force, hears giving and insurance updates during February board meeting

The February meeting of the Texas Baptists Executive Board was held on Feb. 23-24 in Dallas, TX. Board Directors approved three new task forces on the Cooperative Program (CP), prayer and the constitution and bylaws; as well as heard ministry reports, giving and insurance updates and considered 15 unique recommendations. 

Guarneri: A renewed vision for cooperation

During his Monday evening address, Texas Baptists Executive Director Julio Guarneri emphasized the importance of a renewed vision for cooperation, for Texas Baptists to be a reawakened people and to look toward a realignment for the mission. 

“The vision was one of cooperation for the sake of God’s mission,” said Guarneri. “Together, Baptists in Texas could undertake educational enterprises, benevolence ministries, evangelism and missions initiatives.”

Guarneri also addressed Texas Baptists’ commitment to biblical authority, stating, “We are a people of the Book. Do not let anyone deceive you otherwise.” 

Potter: “We are all still on the Potter’s wheel” 

In her Tuesday morning address, Convention President Debbie Potter shared her testimony and encouragement to the Executive Board. Drawing from Isaiah 64:8, she asked board members to consider, “Have you left room [in your plans] to be shaped by the Potter?” 

“Everyone in this room has leadership and the opportunity to help others find their path. So whatever capacity you are here in, we are all still on the Potter's wheel,” said Potter. “We start with a piece of clay, and then that piece of clay gets shaped and refined, and it usually doesn't turn out exactly as planned. It usually doesn't turn out exactly as the artist had anticipated.” 

Potter shared an acronym, “CLAY:” Calling, Let others in, Always and You. "God has a plan for you," she encouraged board members. "Don't let any of the things that the world says disqualify us, disqualify you, from serving the Lord," she said.

“Always remember God can and will do extraordinary things with ordinary people if we let him,” said Potter. “Look at the disciples. They were fishermen, politicians, sons of wealthy people, carpenters, leaders and introverts. They were all from different places and they all had different missions until they met Jesus, and then they had one objective, to follow, and that's our objective.” 

Potter encouraged board members to recall Jeremiah 29:11 and “remember that God’s design takes time [so] stay on the wheel.” 

Cooperative Program still “perfect engine to run this cooperative ministry” 

Ward Hayes, Texas Baptists treasurer/CFO, delivered a financial update.

The convention’s cash position was strong at the close of last year, with $22M spread across multiple accounts. Endowments and investments were at $276M, and the reserve fund was at $9M.

Cooperative Program (CP) receipts in 2025 were at 97.2% of the prior year. Hayes noted that BGCT Worldwide offering was slightly up, but that special mission offerings were slightly down. 

Annie Armstrong was down from $3.4M to $3M; The Mary Hill Davis Offering for Texas Missions was down from $3.3M to $3.2M; Lottie Moon Christmas Offering was down from $8.7M to $8.1M; and Texas Baptist Hunger Offering was down from $.5M to $.4M.

Hayes also shared trends over the last 10 years of Cooperative Program (CP) giving. Since 2015, the consistent trend is that CP giving has declined “every year except one,” causing a total decline of $5M (17%) in CP receipts over ten years. 

In addition, inflation has climbed 35% in that same time. Taken together, the decline in CP giving and the rise in inflation resulted in 50% less spending power in 2025, as compared to 2015. 

Hayes noted that despite these trends, the Cooperative Program is “still the perfect engine to run this cooperative ministry that we share.” 

“God has given us tremendous financial strength to be able to withstand hits like [decreased CP giving in 2025] and continue moving forward,” said Hayes. “God has given us opportunities to pour back into our churches, opportunities to help win the lost and we're excited to meet those challenges and those opportunities… Let us continue to help fuel this beautiful engine of Cooperative Program giving.” 

Officers, GC2 Strong and Indemnity Program updates

To better understand and address the downward trend of Cooperative Program giving, which all state and national conventions are also navigating, the board approved the creation of a Cooperative Program Task Force. The task force will conduct a comprehensive study of Cooperative Program giving in Texas, including, but not be limited to, an examination of how CP is promoted, the allocation of its funds, the rationales underlying churches' decisions regarding participation, the factors contributing to the overall decline in contributions and potential solutions that could be implemented to reverse the decline and establish a positive trajectory for CP giving.

The board also approved a recommendation for the creation of a Constitution and Bylaws Task Force. The task force will study the Texas Baptists Constitution and Bylaw documents and recommend possible updates to the BGCT Executive Board for their consideration. 

The board also approved the creation of a Prayer Network Task Force.

“As Texas Baptists rally around the call to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission (GC2), executive leadership recognizes that prayer is pivotal to the unity and efficacy of reaching our state for Christ,” the recommendation reads. 

The task force will meet to pray together, to discuss ways that prayer may be promoted across the Texas Baptists landscape and to ponder the possibility of forming a network for the purpose of intercessory prayer.

Churches begin seeing savings through Insurance Program

Associate Executive Director Craig Christina updated the board on KingsCover Insurance since its launch on Nov. 1, 2025. At the 2025 Texas Baptists Annual Meeting, Christina shared that the insurance program was “open to apply for coverage.”

Christina shared that 113 churches had signed up for coverage through KingsCover and have saved a combined total of $1,277,644, putting “almost $1.3M back into the pockets of the churches” in just three months. He said out of the 113 churches, 64 have “saved more in premiums than they gave to CP in 2025.” 

He noted that KingsCover has 600 churches in the pipeline, and BGCT was reimbursed $600,000 for some of its 2025 start-up costs.

Christina said the hope of the insurance program is that churches could “build an emergency fund, so they can cover their deductible,” to “continue to do maintenance and issues to keep their facilities up,” and “invest in their ministries.” 

The development of Covenant Solutions and Texas Baptists Risk Management (TBRM) was approved by the board at the February 2025 board meeting. KingsCover is the name of the company to which Texas Baptists churches apply for coverage.

Additional business 

The following individuals were elected to fill vacancies on councils, committees and boards of affiliated ministries:

• Committee to Nominate Executive Board Directors: Dana Moore, Second Baptist Church, Corpus Christi; Monica Followell, First Baptist Church, San Marcos. 
• Executive Board Directors: Tedrick Woods, Living Word Fellowship Church, Dallas; Michael Gossett, Green Acres Baptist Church, Tyler.

Other business included the passage of the following recommendations:

• A recommendation for the approval for the 2028 Annual Meeting Family Gathering to be held July 9-11 at the Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in Round Rock, Texas.
• A recommendation to adopt a new relationship agreement between BGCT and Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas (BHSET). 
• A recommendation to adopt the Restated Certificate of Formation of the Baptist University of the Américas (BUA). 
• A recommendation to allocate 2026 JF Wadley Endowment Fund Earnings of $475,000 to support BSM, Western Heritage and other ministry efforts.
• A recommendation to revise Policy 822 - Background Investigations to more comprehensively address controlled substance possession and driving while intoxicated. 
• A recommendation to revise Policy 831 - Eligibility of Benefits to update the policy language to comply with the Affordable Care Act. 
• A recommendation to revise Policy 842 - Time Away from Work to allow part-time employees to rollover no more than 40 hours of PTO into the next calendar year.
• A recommendation to revise Policy 852 - Flexible Spending Accounts Plan to be removed from the policy manual. 
• A recommendation to revise Policy 853 - Health Savings Account to be removed from the policy manual. 
• A recommendation to revise Committee Policies (400’s) to establish new committees that reflect the creation of the Resource Development and Relationship Development teams. 

The next board meeting is set to take place May 18-19 at Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.